Abstract
Chalcones are naturally occurring, biologically active molecules generating interest from a wide range of research applications including synthetic methodology development, biological activity investigation and studying fragmentation patterns. In this article, a series of chalcones has been synthesized and their fragmentation behavior was studied using modern ambient ionization technique Direct Analysis in Real Time ( DART). DART ion source connected with an ion trap mass spectrometer was used for the fragmentation of various substituted chalcones. The chalcones were introduced to the DART source using a glass capillary without sample preparation step. All the chalcones showed prominent molecular ion peaks [M](center dot+) corresponding to the structures. Multistage mass spectral data MSn (MS2 and MS3) were collected for all the chalcones studied. The chalcones with substitutions at 3, 4 or 5 positions gave product ion peaks with the loss of a phenyl radical (Ph-center dot) by radical initiated alpha-cleavage, while substitution at 2 position of chalcone in the A-ring gave a product ion peak with the loss of substituted styryl radical (PhCH = CH center dot). In case of the chalcones with the substituent at 4 positions in A and B rings gave both types of fragmentation patterns. In conclusion, chalcones can be easily characterized using modern DART interface in very short time and efficiently without any cumbersome sample pretreatment.